The Open 2011: Des Lynam - charity challenge made me long for Seve Ballesteros's talent

I have spent much of my life being intrigued with golf and, from Thursday to
Sunday next week, I shall be glued to the Open Championship at Royal St
George’s.

Special talent: Seve Ballesteros was Des Lynam's sporting idol and inspired him to take up golfPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

By Des Lynam

10:30PM BST 08 Jul 2011

When I took the game up myself, admittedly a little late, I honestly thought I had found a sport at which I could be really good but there was one little ingredient missing. Talent.

Only once did I ever show a glimpse of courage at the game. I got this telephone call from Desmond Wilcox, the top BBC producer who was married to Esther Rantzen. We worked in the same building and we had nodded to each other a few times. Now he was coming on to me like my new best pal. “Des,” he said, “I would love to invite you to play in a charity golf day. Can I come and discuss it with you?”

I wondered what there was to discuss but he soon gave me the details. It would be 18 holes of golf but each hole would be on a different course and we would travel by helicopter between them.

“We’ll get you in the Guinness Book of Records,” he said. The plan was that I would be playing with a club professional called Clive Bonner; we would take on the local pro and captain at each course and I would be expected to say a few words to the spectators to thank them for their cheque for the charity.

“Let me tell you something,” I said. “I’m a nervous golfer, not quite as bad as the PG Wodehouse character who 'missed short putts because of the uproar of butterflies in adjoining fields’ but nervous none the less. I also hate being in helicopters and making speeches is an awful chore. If you don’t mind…”

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“Well,” he said. “After my own heart attack, I said I would do something special for the British Heart Foundation and I told them I could get you. I’ll have to let them down.”

“What’s the date then?” I said. And so I found myself at the Royal Jersey Golf Club at 7.30 one misty morning for my first tee shot. Despite shaking with nerves, I managed to make a respectable bogey on the par four. Had I hit the first shot of the day along the ground, I doubt I would ever have recovered.

We played our last hole at Bramshaw Golf Club in Hampshire at nine o’clock that night. I had made a few pars and actually had a gross birdie along the way. Clive and I had beaten the local pros and captains on aggregate score. I even got to like the helicopter and the same speech did the job every time.

I wonder if Rory McIlroy has a speech planned for next Sunday night? I have had a few bob on him at 6-1 but it looks a tough task. The last man to complete the double of US Open and our Open in the same year was Tiger Woods in his pomp, 11 years ago.

But, for me, there is only one true golfing great. In my television days I was often asked to do interviews with the press in order to plug programmes. Many of the journalists took this as a chance to pop a few questions that you otherwise might not consider.

Once, a young lady from one of the tabloids, showing little interest in our World Cup coverage, asked me: “If you could be a famous sportsman, who would you like to be?” Without hesitation I answered “Seve Ballesteros.” The follow-up seemed unnecessary but she asked it. “Why?”

“Well,” I said. “I’d obviously like to play golf like him, I wouldn’t mind looking like him, I’d like to speak Spanish like him and I’d even like to speak English like him.”

I met Seve a few times, usually at BBC Sports Personality of The Year when he delighted everyone. Hardened BBC hacks would grin and pay homage which they rarely did. The ladies would prance and preen and get the vapours. The gods had smiled on him unreservedly and then they took everything away in the cruellest of manners.

On Sunday night there’s a special tribute to him, Seve: the Legend, on BBC1 at 10.25pm which has been most sensitively produced by Jo McCusker. You’ll need a box of tissues handy if you watch but you’ll find it uplifting too.